Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Teaching Nonviolent Atonement

Home
Progressive Christian
Terrorists Win: “The Interview,” North Korea, and the Tragic Irony of Christmas

Terrorists Win: “The Interview,” North Korea, and the Tragic Irony of Christmas

Last updated on: December 21, 2014 at 12:16 am by Adam Ericksen

Terrorists Win: “The Interview,” North Korea, and the Tragic Irony of Christmas 2014-12-21T00:16:26-05:00 Adam Ericksen

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A North Korean and United States flag.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to watch Kim Jong-un’s assassination on the big screen this Christmas. We will not be able to cheer as the brutal dictator’s helicopter explodes in the air “while Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’ plays on the soundtrack.” We will not be able to fulfill this Christmas Day fantasy by watching “The Interview” because the terrorists have won.

The FBI now claims that Kim Jong-un’s government is behind the act of terrorism. In retaliation for the movie, a state-sponsored North Korean cyber-terrorist group called “The Guardians of Peace” hacked into Sony Pictures and leaked sensitive information, including internal emails, future Sony films, and sensitive employee records. “The Guardians of Peace” also threatened movie goers with a “9/11 style attack” on every cinema that shows the movie.

After the threats were made and many theaters decided to pull the film, Sony Pictures canceled the release of the “The Interview.” Sony said in a statement:

Sony Pictures has been the victim of an unprecedented criminal assault against our employees, our costumers, and our business. Those who attacked us stole our intellectual property, private emails, and sensitive and proprietary material, and sought to destroy our spirit and morale – all apparently to thwart the release of a movie they did not like. We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie, and in the process do damage to our company, our employees, and the American public. We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome.

Washington and Hollywood are also in an uproar:

“Wow. Everyone caved. The hackers won. An utter and complete victory for them,” tweeted Rob Lowe. Jimmy Kimmel claimed that pulling the movie was, “an un-American act of cowardice that validates terrorist actions and sets a terrifying precedent.” Steve Carell said it was a, “Sad day for creative expression.” Senator John McCain stated that “yielding to aggressive cyber-terrorism by North Korea…sets a troubling precedent that will only empower and embolden bad actors to use cyber as an offensive weapon even more aggressively in the future.”

And White House officials are exploring retaliation, “We have options…you freeze the account at banks and you tell the institutions ‘you’re either going to do business with the United States, or you can do business with North Korea.”

The terrorists may have won the battle, but the United States will win the war!

That’s the way the United States is telling this story. I’m sorry. I just can’t go there.

Don’t get me wrong. Despite my unwavering belief in nonviolence, there’s a part of me that wants to blow Kim Jong-un up into a million pieces. Not because I think we’re his victims. Not because we can’t watch a particular movie on Christmas Day. Not because I think he poses a serious threat to our freedoms. No, I want to blow him up because he’s a brutal dictator who terrorizes his own people in concentration camps where 10,000 people die every year. North Korea has one of the worst human rights record in the world, which includes public executions, forced prostitution, slave labor, forced abortions, religious persecution, and arbitrary detentions. If anything good comes out of this conflict, it is that we will learn more about the atrocities the North Korean regime inflicts upon its own people. They are Kim Jong-un’s true victims.

But alas, Sony and the US Government are claiming to be North Korea’s victim, and North Korea is claiming to be our victim. Each side mirrors each other in playing the fearful victim. Nations who feel like fearful victims respond to threats and violence in one predictable fashion – retaliation.

The United States is retaliating against North Korea, whose “Guardians of Peace” retaliated against us for making a movie that North Korea think is, “an undisguised sponsoring of terrorism as well as an act of war.”

Kim Jong-un is clearly a fearful man who keeps power by bullying his own people, indeed, his own family, but he’s not as crazy as we might think. While Sony doesn’t speak for the US Government, “The Interview” does give expression to a dominant theme running throughout our culture – that the world would be better without this brutal dictator who terrorizes his own people, constantly threatens the US with nuclear warfare, and that the only way to get rid of him is through violence.

We in the US want to emphasize differences between us and them. We claim the mantle of morality because we have freedom of speech and freedom of artistic expression. So what if that freedom leads to the depiction of the death of a brutal dictator! But let’s not kid ourselves. This conflict isn’t simply about freedom of speech or expression. It’s about politics. “The Interview” asks the question: How should we deal with brutal dictators who pose a nuclear threat in a post 9/11 world?

This conflict is fundamentally about political violence. And the truth about violence is that it puts us all on the same moral level because violence has a certain moral logic. We all believe that our violence is good and defensive, while the other’s violence is an aggressive form of terrorism. North Korea and the United States are enslaved to this logic of violence. Whenever one nation perceives the other as a terror threat, it retaliates with escalating cycles of violence and threats of violence.

As Jean-Michel Oughourlian states in his brilliant book, Psychopolitcs, national rivalries follow this pattern of retaliation and violence. We believe that our enemy is “considered an evil to be eradicated, and of course, the other side’s position is the same, a mirror image.”

In this sense, we are all members of “The Guardians of Peace.” With a sense of tragic irony, we all believe that the best method to eradicate evil and to guard peace is to retaliate with violence.

The tragic irony only continues once we realize that the movie was set to be released on Christmas Day – the day when we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace. We don’t need anymore “Guardians of Peace.” We need more people who will follow the path of the Prince of Peace. This path means that instead of guarding peace with violence, we lay down our weapons. It means that instead of participating in a cultural fantasy of killing our enemies, we pray for our enemies. It means instead of being offended by our enemies, we find creative ways to love them. As Oughourlian claims, it means that “Instead of spending astronomical sums on arms, let us spend instead on roads, hospitals, schools, houses, businesses to create jobs and so on. Instead of financing war, let us purchase peace.”

Previous Post

December 17, 2014

Advent: The Faith to Scream “It’s Not Okay!”

Next Post

December 23, 2014 Ira Glass Endorses Enhanced (Parental) Interrogration Techniques

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Atonement and Current Events Curriculum Faith and Families Interviews Jesus the Forgiving Victim Lent Montessori politics Reviews The Bible Explained Uncategorized Valentine's Day Wednesday Sermon Who is God?

Select a Month July 2020 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 January 2014 December 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz